Jennings: Water officials purposely disregarded issues

STOCKTON - The summer of 2013 was a bad one for fish in the San Joaquin River Delta, and California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Executive Director Bill Jennings says state water pollution cops exacerbated the situation by quietly promising they wouldn't enforce state water quality standards.

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By Dana M. Nichols

recordnet.com

By Dana M. Nichols

Posted Nov. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Dana M. Nichols

Posted Nov. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

STOCKTON - The summer of 2013 was a bad one for fish in the San Joaquin River Delta, and California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Executive Director Bill Jennings says state water pollution cops exacerbated the situation by quietly promising they wouldn't enforce state water quality standards.

In particular, Jennings points to a May 29 letter from California Water Quality Control Board Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson to top officials for the State Water Project and the California operations of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. In that letter, Wilson said he would "not object or take any action" if the two agencies took measures to hold water back in reservoirs and allow increased salinity in the water Delta farmers use for irrigation.

Even in dry years, as 2013 has been classified by the state, the agencies are required to release enough water through the Delta to protect fish and the quality of irrigation water used by farmers.

State and federal water agency officials had argued for the changed standards by saying that dry weather that began in January left a scanty snowpack. They said 2013 should be considered "critically dry," rather than "dry," and that water needed to be held back in reservoirs to help provide the cold water in rivers that salmon and other fish would need later in the year.

Jennings and agency officials representing Delta farmers said the request and Wilson's response was really just a maneuver to allow the water projects, particularly the State Water Project, to get away with increasing water exports to farms south of the Delta.

Such an increase in exports could increase salinity in the Delta and increase the number of fish sucked into the export pumps, similar to the effect of reducing reservoir releases into the Delta.

State water pollution and game officials disagree with Jennings' conclusion that the change was made to allow increased exports of water.

Les Grober, environmental program manager for the Water Quality Control Board, said his agency decided to change Delta standards at the request of state and federal wildlife agencies worried about protecting salmon later in the year.

"We always have a tough situation," Grober said. "How do you make the best use of a limited supply of water? We did what we thought was best."

Grober said that the decision did not result in any violations of water quality standards intended to protect fish. But he admitted that those standards may be inadequate, and said they are being reviewed as the state updates its water quality plan for the Delta.

Jennings said that not only did water in the Delta violate salinity standards intended to protect agriculture, but that there were also water temperature violations in rivers leading to the Delta.

He said it's no surprise that California Department of Fish and Wildlife fish surveys are finding that many Delta fish species populations are only 1 or 2 percent of their historic levels.

Jennings declined to say whether his group is preparing to file a lawsuit. But he hinted it is possible.

"We believe there is a pattern and practice of violating the law and a failure to enforce by the state water board. If we can't get that changed, then we will have to look at other alternatives."

Jennings and his allies have filed many lawsuits in the past and have sometimes won rulings against government agencies.

If the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance does file suit, it may not be alone.

"It is just more of the same old dirty dealing that we've been experiencing over the years," said Dante Nomellini, manager of the Central Delta Water Agency.

Nomellini said farmers served by his agency did see increases in the salinity of irrigation water taken from the Delta this year.

Though that doesn't immediately kill crops, it is a problem over time because it causes salts to build up in farmland soil, he said.

Nomellini said a similar easing of state regulations in 2009 also worsened irrigation water quality in the Delta. And he says he worries that state regulators may make similar decisions next year.

"There is a pattern and practice it looks like to us," Nomellini said. "We may very well take action on that."